Varun Gupta Quoted in CNBC's Moneycontrol

Amidst various expectations from finance minister Arun Jaitley's annual financial presentation, CNBC's Moneycontrol asked a few experts about their pre-budget expectations for 2017.

In an interview at the Duff & Phelps Valuation Forum in Mumbai, Varun Gupta, Managing Director and Regional leader Southeast Asia and Japan, commented that there may not be a reduction in the headline rate but rather some rationalization in the tax slab.

Varun further commented that the country's start-up ecosystem has witnessed many valuation markdowns. There is an expectation of resulting tax benefits that would put money back in the hands of the individuals, and help to counter the slowdown of the economy.

He added "A lot of sectors such as automotive, real estate, etc. are going to feel the pain and if we do things to put some money back in the pockets of the consumers, some of that pain could be alleviated."

Here are few highlights from the 2017 Budget announcement on February 1, 2017 -

Personal income tax rate was reduced to 5% for individuals having income between Rs. 2.5 lakh to Rs. 5 lakh. All other categories to get uniform benefit of Rs. 12,500 per person.

To make Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) more viable, government proposed a reduction in income tax for companies with annual turnover of upto Rs. 50 crore to 25%.